• Joh Jarvis — Letting Go, Starting Over, and Teaching Meditation in Prisons

  • Apr 10 2025
  • Durée: 50 min
  • Podcast

Joh Jarvis — Letting Go, Starting Over, and Teaching Meditation in Prisons

  • Résumé

  • Joh Jarvis — Letting Go, Starting Over, and Teaching Meditation in Prisons

    Guest Bio

    Joh Jarvis is a former senior executive media producer and journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where she led current affairs programs and large teams of content makers. After a 23-year career in media, she became a teacher of Vedic Meditation and moved to New York in 2015 to teach full-time. In 2021, she founded The Light Inside, a nonprofit delivering meditation programs to incarcerated people and correctional staff across the U.S. Her work includes programs at Rikers Island, the North Dakota State Penitentiary, and other correctional facilities, helping hundreds discover calm, connection, and purpose from within.

    Key Topics Covered

    • Joh’s early spiritual intuition and resistance to conventional paths

    • Her media career, personal struggles, and turning point after loss

    • The impact of meditation on her recovery and reinvention

    • Moving to New York at 49 and starting a new life

    • Founding The Light Inside and teaching in maximum-security prisons

    • How incarcerated people respond to meditation—and transform through it

    • What it means to bring softness, freedom, and humanity into hard places

    Notable Quotes

    💬 “I didn’t realize what I was looking for in drugs and alcohol was a spiritual experience.”

    💬 “Meditation uncovered something in me I didn’t know existed—spontaneous joy.”

    💬 “You don’t want to feel soft in here… but that’s what meditation gave me.”

    💬 “What made me feel good wasn’t just valuable—it was critical.”

    Links & Resources

    🔗 Watch: Joh Jarvis & Meditation Inside Rikers Island (YouTube)

    🔗 The Light Inside – Learn More or Donate

    🔗 Learn to Meditate – London Meditation Centre

    Timestamps

    00:00 – Introduction to Joh Jarvis and her work bringing meditation into prisons

    06:40 – Coming out, intuition, and learning not to care what people think

    14:05 – Grief, addiction, and the breakdown that led to real change

    21:20 – Discovering Vedic Meditation—and a surprising first teacher

    24:00 – “I’ve never felt like this”: a radical inner shift after learning to meditate

    39:00 – Moving to New York at 49: two suitcases, no safety net, full reset

    45:10 – Founding The Light Inside and entering Rikers Island

    51:30 – A student’s transformation: “I feel soft—and that’s dangerous in here”

    59:20 – What drives her now: feeling useful, staying connected to purpose

    -----

    Speaking of Meditation is written and produced by Michael Miller, with direction by Jillian Lavender and assistance from Emma Rae.

    Original music by Rich Jacques.
    https://www.richjacques.com

    Graphics by Elle and Elle.
    http://www.elleelle.com

    Speaking of Meditation… What are you noticing? Who is benefitting? And how are you staying inspired?

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